POP MUSIC REVIEW : Young Weaves an Acoustic Tapestry

With Neil Young, wonders truly never cease.

The first wonder in the career of one of rock’s most essential figures was in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s when Young--still in his 20s--was able to sprinkle his material with traces of the perspective and sense of experience that normally come only with age.

The second wonder has been in recent years when Young--now in his late 40s--has injected many of his most absorbing songs with expressions of innocence and idealism that are normally reserved for one’s youth.

Young brought all of these elements together on Monday at the Greek Theatre in a two-hour solo, acoustic performance that represented an engrossing tapestry of musical imagination and craft. The bulk of Young’s 20 songs were from his early years--material, including “Down by the River,” that stretched all the way back to his pre-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young days.

Young avoided turning the evening into a showcase of memories by drastically reworking the arrangements or by putting tunes together in revealing new contexts, such as the especially affecting coupling of the drug-related “The Needle and the Damage Done” and “Tonight’s the Night.”

The most arresting example of the reworking was on “Like a Hurricane,” where Young accompanied himself on pipe organ rather than stinging electric guitar. He also played acoustic guitar, piano and banjo during the evening.

Yet all this was merely seasoning for the heart of the evening: the introduction of six songs from the upcoming album that many Young fans have been waiting two decades to hear.

Titled “Harvest Moon” and due next month, the album is the sequel to “Harvest,” the comforting, listener-friendly 1972 collection that pushed Young to the top of the national sales charts.

Though that album was critically admired, Young worried that he was moving in too safe and mainstream a direction. In subsequent material such as “Tonight’s the Night” and “Rust Never Sleeps,” Young focused on rawer emotion and harder-rocking textures.

Since then, Young has taken many musical detours, including forays into country, techno-rock and blues, then returned to the aggressive, hard-rock approach with “Freedom” and “Ragged Glory,” two of the most heralded albums of recent years.

Through it all, Young has frequently exhibited a soothing side, and it made sense for him to someday attempt another album in the softer “Harvest” style.

The songs previewed at Monday’s show (which began with brief, well-received acoustic sets by British rock group James and bluesman John Hammond), including the sweet, disarming title tune and the wistful “Unknown Legend,” were appealing indeed--songs that exhibited all of the cleansing and therapeutic currents of Young’s most tender work.

“From Hank to Hendrix,” for instance, is a song about reassessing one’s ideals and values that could be addressed to a loved one, to the members of one’s generation or to musical contemporaries:

I always expected

That you would see me through

I never believed in much

But I believed in you.

It’s rare that anyone with Young’s sensitivity and poetic eye as a lyricist has such a strong command of forceful musical textures--the kind of fury he unleashes on tour with the Crazy Horse trio.

All too frequently in rock, there is precious little left when the fury is taken away. In this naked, acoustic setting Monday, Young demonstrated the extraordinary depth of his own artistry.

Young also plays tonight at the Embarcadero Marina Park South in San Diego and Friday at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa.